Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I keep experimenting with transferring images to various supports. This week, I have played some with wood, using 2 cigar boxes, which I first sand-papered. The results have been mixed. I expected wood to take the ink imprint better than glass, but this hasn’t been quite that simple.

This was my first attempt. What I learnt is that the technique works best with black ink, with images that have lines, rather than large surfaces, which tend not to stick. For instance, see the the “Cuba” inscription, the map detail, and the eyes.

The other issue I had is that it seems to be harder to completely remove the paper; some white patches remain. I’ll try some different papers - I think the one I use is too porous, so when I rub it off I lose some ink – and also laser printing.

For my second attempt, I took an image with few surfaces, and mostly lines – the Durer rhinoceros. I printed 4 of them – one black, one red, one yellow, and one blue.

As you see, the color is pretty much gone in all cases; only the black ink stayed. On the other hand, while not perfect, the “pure-black” rhino did work pretty well.